Taking the Kids: Hiking in the Swiss Alps
Jamison Dondero, visiting from Dallas, likes most everything in Switzerland -- the chance to ride scooters down the snow-capped mountain, the quaint mountain towns and the cozy, family-owned inns, but the food not so much. "I'd like the fondue better if there weren't so many kinds of cheese in it," she said without a hint of irony. She can be excused because she is only 9.
"Nature is what brings the people here," observed Ruth Fuchs, owner of the popular Restaurant Weidstubli and Camping Jungfrau Holiday Park in Lauterbrunner, which offers more than 400 beds and room for 1,000 visitors in the campground. "There may always be something new (paragliding, hang gliding, scooters, mountain bikes and more) but what remains is the nature."
"It is so pretty everywhere," said Reese Dondero, 12.
Especially at the Hotel Obersteinberg, a working dairy farm and hotel that dates from the 1880s set in a remote valley. There are no roads. Mules transport what the hotel needs. There are chamois, red deer and even ibex in this protected area. (Rates seem a bargain given the experience -- $70 for a dormitory bed; $91 per adult in a private room and $67 for kids starting at age six.)
We eat dinner by candlelight -- vegetable soup, farm-produced sausages and Spätzle, a kind of soft egg noodle traditional here -- and then fall into bed under down quilts in paneled rooms. We don't mind the shared bathroom or the fact that only outdoor cold showers are available. Breakfast is freshly baked bread with cheese and butter that is produced here.
The opportunity for such a unique and remote adventure is what draws families. We met the Arbons, the parents carrying heavy packs, leading their three boys aged 5, 9 and 10 on the trail to the hotel. The biggest plus: "There are no cars and no tourist shops," explained Lea Arbon.
Yann, 10, loves the mountain hut without electricity or showers, "because it is so different than home."
After dinner at Obersteinberg, we sat outside nursing schnapps with our two daughters while taking in the spectacular views across the valley. That it took so much effort to get here made it all the more gratifying.
Lea and Peter Arbon agreed. They were hiking to another mountain hut hotel for a second night. The boys couldn't be happier at the prospect of another night without showers.
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